


The Third Life of Tosh

by merryghoul



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Community: hc_bingo, Episode: s02e13 Exit Wounds, Episode: s06e12 Closing Time, Gen, Guns, Prompt Fic, Secretly a Time Lord, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-16
Updated: 2012-06-16
Packaged: 2017-11-07 21:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/435869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one ever sensed Tosh was a Time Lord--not even the Doctor himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Third Life of Tosh

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt from the DW community promptmemes, which suggested the Doctor (no incarnation specified) looking for Time Lords in different fandoms.
> 
> hc_bingo: parting ways

While the Doctor was travelling alone, preparing for his death at the hands of the Impossible Astronaut, the TARDIS and he had an adventure in a parking garage.

The TARDIS materialized in the parking garage near Techniquest in Cardiff. As he stepped out of the TARDIS, he muttered "Time Lord, there's a Time Lord here. I can sense him…her…it."

The Doctor approached a woman wearing a tan trench coat and tall, black boots with buckles. She was fixing a 1999 Ford Fiesta. The Doctor stood in front of the woman.

"Excuse me. I'm the Doctor. I'm looking for a fellow Time Lord, one of the few Time Lords that escaped before the Time Battle."

The woman stepped from under the hood, closing it. She brushed her long, curly black hair behind her head. She put her wrench back in one of her trench coat pockets and pulled out a fobwatch. "Are you looking for me, Doctor?" She spoke in a West Country accent.

The Doctor froze, his mouth agape. "You are a very beautiful Time _Lady._ "

 

The Ford Fiesta was actually the Time Lady's Battle TARDIS. The Doctor and this Time Lady had climbed into her TARDIS and were now in her kitchen.

"Would you like a beer? I have a fondness for it. My last incarnation loved beer."

"No. Wine and I do _not_ get along. I'm thinking beer will be the same way. That is, unless you have ginger beer."

"I've decided not to stock up on ginger beer. It reduces Time Lord alcohol tolerance. I'll keep my five years of built-up alcohol tolerance, thanks."

"Do you have tea?"

"Oh, yeah, I've got tea."

The Time Lady put a kettle on her TARDIS' stove.

"I've never introduced myself to you, have I, Doctor?"

"No."

"My name is Toshikovarlanecular."

The Doctor blinked. "You don't have any sort of nickname, or…"

"Well, I went by Toshiko in my last body. I liked shortening it to Tosh. You can call me Tosh, Doctor."

"Wait, you're that Toshiko Sato I met when I wearing that leather jacket and I had a Northern accent!"

"I am."

"I never thought I'd see you again. And I'd never thought I'd see you in a different body. That arch _really_ worked well for you. Are you still a doctor?"

"I've got my TARDIS back, Doctor. Why would I _pretend_ to be a doctor anymore?" Tosh smiled. "Why'd you come looking for me?"

"I'm on a farewell tour. I think my TARDIS brought me to you so I can learn about you and make sure you're alright."

"So you want to know about my story? I'm warning you, Doctor, it'll be a very long story."

"Take your time. We have all the time in the universe. Well, maybe _you_ do. I don't."

"What? What happened?"

"Some time in the future, I will meet my death at the hands of an astronaut."

Tosh gasped. "Oh, that's terrible."

The tea kettle blew.

"Not as terrible as if I don't get that kettle off the stove."

 

Tosh, at age 210, remembered where she was when the Etra Prime Incident happened on Gallifrey. She was a time travel researcher, working on time travel devices as well as improving TARDISes to make them more powerful and durable. The Daleks had pretended to be Monan Hosts. The transduction barriers to Gallifrey were lowered. Tosh saw several of her friends and family members die at the hand of Daleks.

Two Daleks were chasing after Tosh during the invasion. She hid inside a Battle Tardis. She pressed a few buttons on the TARDIS. The TARDIS started to materialize, saving Tosh from the Daleks.

From that moment on, she became an accidental Renegade Time Lord.

She remembered when she first landed on Earth. It was January 12, 1969. Her TARDIS landed at the Miami Orange Bowl. It was Super Bowl III.

Tosh found a seat at an upper level of the Miami Orange Bowl and enjoyed the game. It was the first vacation she ever had, and it was a nice one.

After seeing some of the universe and traveling through different periods in Earth's history, Tosh did go back to Gallifrey. By that time, the Doctor, in his eighth body, was leading Time Lords into battle against Daleks.

Tosh knew that one day there was a possibility of her going into battle ever since she was 50. But she had flashbacks of the Etra Prime Incident. She knew that if she went to war against the Daleks with the Doctor, she could've died at the hands of Daleks or, even worse, her own people.

She applied a chameleon circuit to herself, storing her memories in a fobwatch. Her Battle TARDIS hurtled towards Earth.

Tosh crash-landed somewhere in the West Country, England. Her TARDIS had turned into a 1999 Ford Fiesta. She lost the plans to a sonic screwdriver she was attempting to perfect as well as her fobwatch in the crash. And she had regenerated into a British Japanese woman who believed she was in her late 20s.

The Doctor nodded after hearing Tosh's tale of leaving the Last Great Time War. "I wish I knew the Time Lords were growing more and more corrupt unlike you. I would've sealed that time seal around them earlier. You're a very brave Time Lady, Tosh."

"Thank you, Doctor."

 

Days after the TARDIS crash, Tosh, who now believed she was a Toshiko Sato, had acquired a flat in Southern England. She also acquired fake memories of living in Japan with her family, based in Japan and in England.

"I spent some time in Japan before I went back to Gallifrey," Tosh said. "I think that's what happened—I spent time with the Japanese. That's how my last regeneration believed she was Japanese."

Meanwhile, while her second regeneration went to work at the Lodmoor Research Facility, two people found out about Tosh's incomplete sonic screwdriver plans. The first was a terrorist known as Milton, who wanted to use what became known as the sonic "modulator" for some insidious purpose. Tosh wasn't sure what, but it was insidious. The second was UNIT, who had found Tosh's plans (but strangely enough, not her fobwatch) and stored them in the Lodmoor Research Facility.

When Tosh was forced to get her plans back to aid Milton and to save the woman, a UNIT employee, she mistakenly thought was her mother, her second, human life changed.

Taking sips of her beer, Tosh told the Doctor about her years with Torchwood, starting with her UNIT imprisonment. "It was a miserable experience, Doctor," she said. "I was in an orange jumpsuit without a toilet and a bed. It was very inhuman. Once I get back on my feet, I'm going to pay a visit to whoever runs these secret UNIT prisons and demand the prisoners get better treatment. Without crossing my own time stream, of course. I'm surprised that after my visit to me in prison Jack didn’t fight for better conditions. Then again, Jack has his own secrets to attend to. Maybe he's distracted, for better or for worse."

Tosh then told the Doctor about her co-workers Suzie, Owen, Ianto and later, Gwen; Owen's first day, which resulted in Tosh flying in to see the Doctor in his ninth body in London; and various other Torchwood cases, from Gwen's first proper case, the sex gas case, to when Jack's brother Gray shot her, and all the misadventures in between.

"I helped build a lot of technology for Torchwood," Tosh said. "The Torchwood Mainframe, a Time Lock for the Hub. Without me, they'd still be figuring out how to get on the Internet. I didn't seek acknowledgement. That's what Suzie wanted, and it lead to her death. Then again, we still don't know a lot about her. Even though Jack blames himself for Suzie's death, he thinks she was a horrible person when he met her, and that might be true."

"So you prefer to be a silent hero."

Tosh nodded. "I'd rather fight with my skills and knowledge than with weapons. But make no mistake, Doctor—I know how to shoot a MiCapa. I hope I don't have to use one again, though. A sonic screwdriver is much nicer than a MiCapa. And it's much more versatile."

 

It was widely believed that Tosh died for good after Gray shot her. She was stored in the Vault.

Instead, the refrigeration in the vault was slowing her regeneration process.

Instead of happening quickly in a huge flash that could've destroyed most of the Hub's artifacts, the regeneration happened slowly. Tosh didn't realize _why_ she was alive, but she knew she had to get out of this vault—it was too claustrophobic. For some reason, the only person she could think of was Suzie Costello. And she had a sneaking suspicion that the family she thought she had weren't even related to her.

Meanwhile, in the Hub, Jack opened a box that arrived around the same time that Tosh joined Torchwood. Inside the box was a fobwatch. Jack knew the text on the watch was Old High Gallifreyan, but Jack didn't know how to read the language. He opened it.

As Tosh was fighting her way out of her drawer in the vault, she remembered how she ended up on Earth for the past five years or so. She also realized this was her third life, having lost her first hurdling towards Earth.

After pushing for a short while, Tosh tumbled out of her drawer and fell onto the Vault's floor. Jack heard the crash.

Tosh stood up and looked at her new feet. She had a darker skin tone and much larger feet. The hospital gown she was wearing was short. Too short. Her new body had gained a couple of inches or so. She was still slender.

Tosh felt her chest to make sure she had breasts. She still had those. While feeling for breasts, she noticed her hands were larger. She grabbed her hair. It was curly and long enough for Tosh to see it without a mirror. Her hair was black, much to her amusement. She felt her face. She still had a Time Lord's face. Oh, sure, she had a more prominent nose now, but she looked like a Time Lord.

After Tosh felt her face, she saw Jack pointing his revolver at her. She raised her hands.

"I thought I killed you _again._ "

"No, no, don't shoot!" Tosh now sounded like Suzie. It hit Tosh at that moment that she had transformed into the only person she could think about while regenerating, her former, now dead, colleague Suzie Costello. Suzie was the only person she could regenerate into that could make her escape from the vault less awkward. Outside of Torchwood, Tosh's Toshiko incarnation didn't really know many people, partly because of the contract Toshiko made with Jack and UNIT and partly because Toshiko was reserved. Owen died at the same time she did. Since he had already died once, Tosh ruled regenerating into him out. She also barely remembered his body disintegrated after his final death. Another Owen in the Hub would've made things awkward, at least in Tosh's mind. And since Gwen and Ianto were still alive and Jack couldn't be killed at all, they were all out. It wasn’t like Romana's second incarnation, where she decided to transform Princess Astra of Astros after she was restored.

"I made a vow that if you ever came back, I'd come back for you."

"No! I'm Tosh—Toshiko. I'm a Time Lord. Suzie's still dead."

"Toshiko _is_ dead."

"Before she died, Suzie put this device in her arm. She thought she'd be able to increase the strength of the Resurrection Glove with it. She threatened to harm me if I told anyone I was working with her to test out that device. I never told anyone because I was afraid she'd come back."

Jack paused. He put his revolver back in his holster. "Okay. Let's pull Suzie out of the Vault for what I hope will be the last time."

Jack opened Suzie's drawer in the Vault. Suzie was still in it.

Jack's eyes widened. "You know what? You may be right."

Tosh and Jack carried Suzie's body to the medical bay. Tosh stood in place as Jack ran the scanner over her body. There was no metal in Tosh's body. Jack then scanned Suzie's body. In her right arm was a metal device Jack had never seen before.

Jack turned to Tosh. "I think I have your fobwatch."

 

Jack had some clothes that fit Tosh's new body. They looked very much like Suzie's clothes when she was resurrected: blue blouse, tan trench coat, black skirt, black boots. They fit Tosh well. Jack gave Tosh back her fobwatch. Tosh put the fobwatch in her pocket. She hoped to fill her pockets with useless trinkets someday.

In Jack's office, Tosh explained to Jack how she ended up on Earth as well as in the employ of Torchwood.

"My car's still at my flat, correct?" Tosh asked after she finished her story to Jack. "It's a 1999 Ford Fiesta, blue."

"That's your TARDIS."

"Yeah, it's a Battle TARDIS. Nothing like the Doctor's TARDIS. It's more advanced and I'm sure I can get wherever I want to go in it. I'll call a cab and go to my flat."

Jack cleared his throat. "Do you want anything from your storage compartment?"

"Jack, you forget I have a sonic screwdriver. All I need to do is get my TARDIS, maybe get a few things, and I'll be on my way."

There was a pause between them.

"I know you want me to stay, Jack. You're down a man, and Gwen and Ianto can't help you the way I can. In Torchwood, of course. I don't really care what happens with you and Ianto."

Jack nodded.

"I can't change my regeneration now, Jack," Tosh continued. "You have no use for a Time Lady that looks like one of your former employees. Especially one that locked us all in the Hub and tried to kill Gwen. And, most importantly, I'm a Time Lady. I'm not meant to stay here forever. I've gotta go.

"I learned lots of things while I was in hiding in Cardiff. I feel less timid now. I'll try to be a bit more outgoing in this body—if I don't do it now, I might regret it in a later regeneration. I'll also do my best to defend those in need. The Doctor would want me to do so if he met me again right now. Gwen and Ianto will be fine. They're strong. I hope you'll stay strong for me."

Jack stood up from my desk. "Are you about to go?"

"Yes." Tosh kissed Jack on his cheek. "I hope you don't mind."

"No, of course not. Is there anything else you'd like me to do before you go?"

"You know, Toshiko never really saw her 'mother' before she died because of that contract. And I'm still haunted about Suzie moaning about how she felt she wasn't appreciated and missed after her first death. You should give Toshiko a funeral."

"How do I do that?"

"Order a coffin and put, oh, I don't know, something from the Archives in there. I weighed about nine stone in my last body. Have a closed casket funeral. That's how you should remember Tosh. And maybe you could do the same for Owen. I know his family wasn't close to him, but he deserves a funeral as well." Tosh nodded. "Goodbye, Jack, and good luck."

Tosh left the Hub for the last time. She hailed a cab from the Millennium Centre and headed to her TARDIS. She had recently gotten some things from her Torchwood storage and had decided to repair her car near Techniquest when the Doctor showed up.

 

The Doctor stood up after Tosh had finished her story. "That was an amazing story, Tosh. I hope you have a good life—much better than mine."

"Doctor, I think you're giving up on life a bit too early."

"No, no, Tosh, you don't understand. This astronaut is going to shoot both my hearts so I can't regenerate."

"Doctor, you're the cleverest Time Lord that ever lived. You stopped the Last Great Time War. You stopped the corrupt Time Lords from occupying Earth and destroying it. You've saved the universe. I'm sure you can find a way to not get killed at the hands of a mere astronaut."

The Doctor snapped his fingers. "You're right. I've got to go right now. Good luck, Tosh. You'll be brilliant."

The Doctor ran out of Tosh's TARDIS, carefully shutting the Fiesta door behind him before speeding back into his TARDIS. Tosh yelled "You didn't finish your tea!" to him, but he was long gone.

Tosh cleaned the cooking equipment in the kitchen before she went back to the console of her Battle TARDIS. She pressed a few random buttons on the console. Her TARDIS started to materialize.

"Okay, girl. Take me where I'm needed."


End file.
